A mid-sixteenth century edition of the Roman fifth century writer Macrobius' hugely influential commentary on Cicero's In somnium Scipionis (The dream of Scipio), published in Venice by Ioannes Gryphius (after the edition pub by Seb. Gryphius in Lyon). Cicero's work, the sixth book of De re publica, describes a fictional dream vision of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, set in the period immediately prior to the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.. The commentary of Macrobius, in essence a philosophical discourse on the nature of the cosmos which promotes the paradigm of a spherical earth, first appeared in print in Venice in 1472. However, the 1483 Brescia edition was the first to contain Macrobius' world map, one of the earliest printed maps to depict the world as a globe. This map, retained in subsequent editions (including the 1556 Gryphius) is also of immense importance because it shows the hypothetical Antipodes - Terra Australis Incognita. The existence of such a landmass was posited by Macrobius on the basis that it provided the earth with equilibrium, acting as a counterbalance to the known northern landmass. The worldview of Macrobius stands alongside that of the second century Greek geographer Ptolemy - whose ideas were lost to the West until the Renaissance - as the most influential for cartography and geography prior to the Age of Discovery. Source

For a donation of this amount we have a lovely little late 17th Century book, "La Rhetorique de Ciceron" (The Orations of Cicero) in French and Latin parallel translation. Printed by Horace Molin in Lyon, 1692, 616 pages, bound in fine vellum, good antiquarian condition.

Julian Waters contributed his stunning personal touch for a calligraphic Fraktura and uncial broadsheet. We printed 150 total, and only a few of the prints on Cartiera Magnani Revere (300gsm) are left in my archives. 13"x19"

Hanging banner printed with wood type and hand-set foundry by PF in 2015 for the #letterpressreloaded exhibition in São Paulo. The reverse is a tribute to Hermann Zapf. On Echizen Unryu-shi. Extremely limited edition.